Eggheads star CJ de Mooi has spoken out against the BBC after he claimed they refused to include him in the Strictly Come Dancing line-up because he wanted to dance with a male partner.

The clever trivia whiz (44), who sits on the panel of BBC quiz show Eggheads, revealed that BBC bosses chose the show’s presenter Jeremy Vine over him because he requested to dance with another man.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, CJ said: “I can’t believe they picked Jeremy over me. I’m quite upset. It’s because I wanted to dance in a same-sex couple.

“Someone at the BBC told me at least for the foreseeable future neither Strictly Come Dancing or the US version Dancing With The Stars will have a same-sex couple on. How disappointing.”

CJ revealed that he believes the BBC is too afraid of offending viewers and needs to be less conservative in their decisions.

“The BBC has always been conservative with a small c, but maybe they perceive the viewership as more conservative than they actually are. Maybe they’ve got a bee in their bonnet about openly gay men in positive, sporty, outwardly masculine roles,” said CJ.

Despite CJ’s criticism, BBC have said they plan to keep the traditional format of the show.

According to Mail Online, a spokesperson from BBC denied that the broadcaster had ever approached CJ to compete in the show.

“We never approached nor had any plans to approach CJ to participate in this year’s series of Strictly Come Dancing.

“CJ’s agent gave us the opportunity to consider him but there was only one person we ever wanted from Eggheads and that was Jeremy Vine and we are delighted that we got our man,” the spokesperson said.

CJ first came to the attention of BBC after he appeared in The Weakest Link.

Other celebrities taking part in this series of the show include Peter Andre, Jamelia and Daniel O’Donnell.